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Shouto knows that he can never escape from his father. He is his fathers son and his fate is set in stone. He will be his father’s legacy. Shouto wishes that he could escape from the fate that seems to be carved into his skin the things that always have happen and always will. and maybe someday he will get the change to change his fate.
Eraserhead asks him to stay after class one day, he sits in his chair and Eraserhead sits in the chair in front of Shouto turning it around so he can stare at him.
“You might be wondering why I asked you to stay behind.” Shouto hums and wonders how long this will take and if he will have to take a different train.
“I guess” he says when he notices Eraserhead waiting
“Someone has brought to my attention some quite startling information about you and your family and I needed to ask you about it.” Shouto tries not to let any expression cross his face. He questions who could have told, the only option is Midoriya but he had seen him in class today and he didn’t look particularly guilty. So someone else must have told.
“Startling information Aizawa Sensei ?” He questions, he wonders how much his teacher knows and how much he is still piecing together.
“Yes, startling information that I need to talk to you about.” he affirms. Shouto understands now, he wants Shouto to admit to what his father has done. He doesn’t want to admit to the information he already has in hopes that Shouto will give him more. But Shouto knows that whatever he says will get him nowhere, his life is planned out and there is no time for bumps in the road.
His answer gives away nothing. “And what might that information be, Aizawa Sensei.” He says nothing, he will say nothing. They stare for a second. A stalemate has been reached and Eraserhead concedes first.
“Todoroki someone heard you say some quite alarming things about what your father has done in the past and they were worried about your safety now.” Eraserhead says still being quite vague.
He needs to steer the conversation away from his father. “Can I ask who told you these things?”
“Todoroki, that is not important at the moment. What is important is your safety. Are you safe, do you need help?” Aizawa is assertive in his tone; he wants an answer, even if everyone in the room already knows it. Shouto makes sure that no expression crosses his face. For a moment a voice in his head tells him to ask for help. But he knows that it doesn’t really matter what he says because no matter what he does he can’t escape. The world works in certain ways for certain people and for Shouto Todoroki he will forever be stuck in the web that has been spun since his birth. He is Shouto Todoroki, Endeavor's prodigal son and he can’t escape that.
He is quiet for a second before answering “Does it really matter whether I am safe or not, Aizawa Sensei? Will it change anything?” Shoutos knows that in a way what he has said is a confirmation of the questions spinning around in the air, but he also knows that the confirmation doesn’t really matter because the world will keep spinning and all that will change is how one hero will look at another. Eraserhead opens his mouth to say something and then he shuts it.
“Todoroki, you do know that I will have to report this to the proper authorities?” Shouto hums. The proper authorities will be told and then they will do nothing.
“And what will you do when there is nothing that they can do?” Shouto inquires, wanting to know what Eraserhead will do when he realizes that Shouto can’t be saved and that sometimes the necessary evils win.
“They will be able to do something, I'll make sure of it.” Eraserhead says as he pulls a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and reaches out to hand it to him.
He doesn’t wait for Shouto to ask what it is.“It's my phone number and my address. If you ever need help you can call me.” Eraserhead then stands up from his chair and walks back to his desk. Shouto too stands up and walks to the door.
“Thank you for your time Todoroki, I hope you have a good rest of your day.” Aizawa looked up at him and if he was a different person he might have smiled. Shouto doesn’t reply. He walks out of the door and out of the U.A building.
At the train station he gets a ticket and waits for his train. He tries to ignore all the thoughts of the conversation he had just had with his teacher but he can feel the paper in his pocket. He gets up and walks into the train bathroom. Luckily there is no one in there but him. He splashes some water onto his face and looks at himself in the mirror. He has no expression on his face, he doesn’t look angry or scared or mad and most of all he doesn’t look happy.
He pulls the paper out from his pocket and unfolds it. He walks over to the trash can intent on ripping it up, throwing it away knowing that his father would be so angry at him, and then he stops, he folds it back up and he puts it back into his pocket. Shouto goes and he sits on the bench and ignores how the paper feels like it is burning a hole to his flesh and he waits for his train.
While on the train he looks at the news. His father had beaten a villain; the news was praising him. He had saved people. His father saved people, that was his job, even if not directly he helped people and who was Shouto to take away someone who helped people. Who was he to say that his life, no his well being, was more important than hundreds of people's lives? What would that make him but a monster?
When he gets home his sister greets him at the door; he can smell the food she was cooking.
“Hi Shouto, father will be eating with us today, they let him off early after that villain fight.” Fuyumi sounded more anxious than usual, probably due to the fact that their father would be eating with them. He nods and smiles at Fuyumi and walks upstairs to his room to change out of his school uniform. He takes the note from Aizawa out of his pocket and sets it on his dresser. Just for good measure he unfolds it and puts Aizawa’s phone number and address into his phone. He hears his father come and hurriedly finishes changing.
He walks downstairs and sits down at the table
“Hello father” He doesn’t look at his father with his burning face and his burning glare.
“Hello Shouto.” His father replied. They do not say much, just as usual. The tension is palpable in the air.
The tension always felt like a chokehold for Shouto unable to know how far was too far and if he went too far he always ended out of breath and in pain. They eat in this tension just as they always do when father is home for dinner.
He stands up and thanks Fuyumi when he is done eating and he walks to his room. Endeavor will come get him when it is time to train. In the meantime he works on homework at his desk and he thinks about failing all of it, getting all the answers wrong in some fit of disobedience and he wonders what Endeavor would do to him, what he would say. He wonders how far he would have to go for Endeavor to kill him. And at that moment Endeavor knocks on his door and he gets up and he follows Endeavor down the hall and the stairs and into the room that he will leave with is his skin burning and anger raging inside of him and he doesn’t protest or say he tired or he’s had a long day because this is his fate and there is no escaping fate.
Today is worse than usual. Maybe it has something to do with Endeavor’s villain fight earlier, or how he refuses to use his fire or maybe it is the way that he yells and the things that he says to Endeavor and maybe those things don’t matter at all. All he knows is that he was left on the floor while his father stormed off, probably to spend another night working at his office. He doesn’t have the time to dwell on it as he pulls himself off the floors and accesses his injuries. He’s quite glad that it's not too bad because as it’s a Friday, he won’t be getting a healer until at least the next day.
Fuyumi is waiting for him outside of the training room and she can see the anxious look on her face.
“Father is going to spend the night at the office.” She says rather quietly. Shouto nods and winces at the burn on his neck.
“Are you okay? Do you need any help?” Fuyumi says as she sees his wince.
“I’m okay Fuyumi.” Shouto says as he walks right past her and up the stairs, he doesn’t know what has gotten into him. Maybe it’s the fact that he has one more choice then staying and going to the police and maybe he’s just delirious but he decides that this is it he’s leaving. Fuyumi follows him to his room and watches in confusion as he grabs his phone, some money from his desk, the note from Aizawa off his dresser and a coat. He takes off his shirt and puts on a new one as the shirt he's wearing has burns and holes in it he then puts his coat on ignoring how it rubs against his wounds.
“Shouto what are you doing?” The tone of her voice isn’t accusatory, just confused. He walks past her out of his room and down the hallway and she follows.
“I’m leaving.” He keeps walking down the hallway and she keeps following him.
“You're injured, and where are you even going to go? You know that going to the police won’t do anything?” She’s right and she deserves to know, so he tells her.
“My teacher gave me his address and his phone. If I ever need help.” After he says it, they stand in the hallway for what feels like several minutes.
“Does he know?” She asked “Did you tell him?” They both know what she means when she asks if he had told.
“He knows but I didn’t tell him someone else did.” She looks at him and he wonders if in another world they would be smiling right now sitting down on a couch and watching a movie with the rest of their family. But they are not in that world.
“I love you Shouto.” She says almost whispering and smiles at him even if it is fake. He knows that this means that she isn’t going to stop him from leaving.
“I love you too.” He replies softly before turning and walking down the stairs and out the door.
He walks to the train station and ignores the pain in his body. He had checked on his phone and Aizawa lived a 30 minute train ride from his house. He buys his ticket and the train comes soon after. He sits down on one of the seats not leaning back so as to not irritate the burns on his back and he sits. He trys no to think about what he has just done and what he has to do. He just focuses on staying alive and present.
He arrives at the train station and he gets off the train and it hits him just what he has done and what he is planning on doing. He sits down on one of the benches lining the wall and he thinks about going back. He knows that Fuyumi would never tell, his father would never know and everything could go back to normal just as it’s always been. But he’s committed, he’s told Fuyumi and he’s taken the train all the way here and he’s not sure at this point if he could live with himself if turned back. So Shouto gets up off of the bench and he leaves the station.
He walks the rest of the way to Aizawa’s house. It’s a small house, one story. Shouto stands in front of it just staring for quite a bit he wonders how he looks. He finally gets the nerve up to knock on Aizawa’s door. He thinks about turning around and leaving when Aizawa finally opens the door.
He looks Todoroki over a few times and ushers him in “Come in Todoroki.” It makes Shouto wonder how bad he looks.
“Who was at the door, Shouta.” He hears someone yell as he walks in the door and then he sees his english teacher.
“Yamada Sensei?” Shouto says, confused looking over at Aizawa.
Aizawa answers the question that goes unsaid “Me and Hizashi are married and we live together. I failed to mention that when I gave you my address.” Shouto nods at that and Aizawa leads him to the couch. They both know that Shouto is going to have to talk about the injuries that are very obviously there but for a second Shouto just breathes and he tries not to think about the choice he's made.
Shouto sits down on the couch and he breathes, he waits for Aizawa to say something.
“Todoroki I’m going to ask you this again.” Aizawa is calm as he talks and Shouto is glad for that. “Do you need help?” Shouto thinks for a second and he breathes as deep as he possibly can. “I think that I do.” He replies and Shouto thinks that maybe his fate can change.